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Archaeology
Archaeology is a secondary profession that was released in the latest expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. *Intended as a casual profession for players to enjoy in their "downtime".http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-e3-2010-hands-on *Focused on locating, piecing together, and appraising artifacts unearthed by the Cataclysm. *Interacting with an artifact you find is similar to other gathering professions. It has been specifically stated that you will be able to track both Artifacts and your regular "tracking" for gathering professions. Instead of tracking individual nodes, you will instead search marked regions on the world map (a shovel icon when viewing an entire continent, or a red enclosed region when viewing a single zone). *Artifacts will go into a new artifact journal instead of your inventory. *Placing an artifact in your journal will allow you to "study" it and progressively unlock new rewards. *Unlocks unique rewards such as vanity pets, mounts, and other "toys", with occasional rare quality weapons or armor. *Players will be able to read ancient runes found amidst ruins and in dungeons to provide themselves and other players with buffs. *Some items and discoveries will be heavily geared towards expanding the game's lore, filling in plot holes, and documenting the history of the world as it was before the Cataclysm. Players will reportedly be able to compile what amounts to a lore database.http://pc.ign.com/articles/109/1096848p1.html *A mock-up of the Archaeology interface is presented as a hand-written journal, with a listing of artifacts, relics, and related reagents and tasks, as well as artwork and a description for each relic. Artifacts are also given a "black market value", indicating that they can perhaps be sold for profit. There has been an indication that your journal may come with some form of "mini-game" to study findings. Description Upon learning the Archaeology secondary profession the player receives the ability Survey. There are 12 fields of research players can explore, each relating to a race in the game such as Troll, Night Elf, Dwarf, and Tol'Vir. Using the Survey skill players need to gather Archaeology Fragments of one type (e.g. Dwarf Archaeology Fragment) from Archaeology Finds of the same type. They can then Solve the current stage of this race's research and will receive an item upon doing so. How Archaeology Works As related by Ghostcrawler... http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=2000&topicId=26726035891 Sites Once Archaeology is trained, you can see digsites on your map (not mini-map). There are always four dig sites per continent. These will not change until you dig one out. You only find sites in zones of your level or lower. A level 25 character will have all 4 sites per continent in level 25 zones. This means that no dig sites will appear for that character in Outland or Northrend until he reaches a minimum level for the zones. Sites are race specific. You can usually guess the race by the location. Some race locations are only available on some continents. You need both a minimum character level and a minimum archaeology level to use some sites. Dig sites are player specific. There is no competition for dig sites. Fragments Each digsite can be searched 3 times before it despawns and a new site spawns. To search a digsite, use the ability. The Survey tool will spawn and point in the approximate direction of the artifact. Red means you are far away, Yellow means you are close, Green means you may be within 40 yards or so. When you discover your find, you'll get fragments specific to a particular race. There are two main strategies to surveying. You can attempt to triangulate by moving around the outer edge of a digsite. Other people orienteer, simply heading off in the direction indicated until they strike paydirt. Artifacts When you get a new fragment, you'll start a research project. You can only work on one artifact per race at a time. When you have enough fragments, click Solve to complete that artifact. You won't waste excess fragments, they will just start the next project. Most artifacts are common. These give a bit of lore or flavor text and an item you can sell for a small profit. You can estimate the value of the artifact by the number of fragments required to finish it. You won't find a second instance of a given artifact for a race until you've found all the artifacts of that race at least once. Some artifacts are rare, and make a blue or purple item. Many of these are toys, or for flavor, but some are actual weapons and armor. Weapons and armor are bound to account, but will not scale like heirlooms do. Trainers Horde players learn Archaeology from certain NPCs belonging to The Reliquary faction, Alliance players do so at Explorers' League NPCs. ;Alliance * Diya (Exodar) * Harrison Jones (Stormwind) * Darnella Winford ;Horde * Belloc Brightblade (Orgrimmar) * Adam Hossack (Undercity) * Elynara Levels Archaeology has set levels at which players can solve artifacts from different cultures. Fragments collected before players reach the appropriate level are hidden from view until they have reached the appropriate level for that culture and have found more fragments from that culture, at which time the previously collected fragments for that culture are made available. The following are the current levels: Dig sites Archaeology dig sites can be found on all four continents. There are four dig sites on each continent available at any one time. Dig sites are available based on player skill. However, compared to other gathering professions, there is no competition between players. Upon reaching a dig site, players will be able to collect their three finds before the dig site dries up and a new one is made available. Even if other players are searching at the site, the finds are individual to each player.At the site/field use your survey skill. (Found in your spellbook under the professions tab) Using this will spawn the Archaeology Tripod that points in the direction of the artifact/fossil you are looking for. It has a little light that will show the distance to said artifact/fossil. A slow flashing red light indicates a large distance up to the length of the entire dig site. A faster yellow blinking light seems to indicate approximately 100-300 yards, and a rapid flashing light seems to indicate less than 100 yards. Rewards Archaeology was originally intended to allow advancement in the now-scrapped Path of the Titans system, and would have reportedly awarded players with Ancient Glyph slots and recipes. At present, known rewards include various non-combat items as well as the occasional rare loot. Players will be able to piece together skeletal fragments to create a skeletal raptor mount. Players can also read ancient runes found in ruins and dungeons to give buffs to themselves and others. ;Achievements * * * * * * * Videos Introduction to Archaeology: I7x3WGF4fX0 References Category:Archaeology Category:Cataclysm Category:WoW professions Category:WoW secondary professions